Friday the 13th

Needed a little brightness for this brisk spring day. The felt adornment to a box of chocolates + magnets and hot glue = insta pin.

Running, and Running, And Running......

My life is a mess and I feel like I am chasing it constantly. Quick piece before I am off to see some lovely ladies. Earrings, silver, opalized quartz.

Soup & Salad, South of the Border Style

Nice cool spring day requires a quick little pick me up with some spice to it. There were two things that you couldn't find in Turkey, Mexican and Thai. BOTH were craved immediately. So I picked up some fun things in the market the other day to make. This was a quick dinner, 30 min total time. Well spent while Spencer did the dishes and we talked about the day. Looking forward to warmer weather and more cooking this weekend.

Mexi Soup -
4 c mixed black and red beans
1 quart soup stock
2 c water
1 onion
1 plabano pepper
4 cloves garlic
1/4 c mashed potato flakes
1 tsp adobo
1 tbs salt
1 tsp black peper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp worschsitre sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tbs butter
2 tbs oil
sauté onion, garlic and pepper in butter & oil until soft. Stir in 1/2 of the beans, spices, add stock. Stir in potato flakes and bring to a simmer, blend well with immersion blender, thanks Mom & Dad Hansen!!

After blend to your desired texture, add in remaining beans. Gives you an idea of what you are eating.
Top with shredded cheese and scallions.

Jicama Salad-
1 small jicama, cubed
1.2 large lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
scallions

toss and serve cold. Yummy.

Cup Cake Bling Ring

This masterpiece is sponsored by my lovely neighbor Robert and his mad baking skillz. Thanks for the porch cupcake - smores!! For dinner, since I am just getting home at 10 and still haven't eaten. Ring is folded aluminum foil wrapper from my cupcake-o- licious dinner.

Getting Back to It

Is harder than I thought it would be. A long day in PA with friends, NOVA with Family and LONG drive home. All punctuated by a long email list to welcome me back to work today and list of chores. Oh how much fun is it to be an adult. The up side. A kitchen all to myself, fresh bags of groceries and JAZZ, oh how I've missed this. Quick white bean and arugula salad, replacing the "squid" as we RVA peeps have cone to know and love it with Krab Sticks, Blasphemy? I know. But it was good enough for my return to the kitchen.

White beans, tossed with sliced red onion, lemon juice, olive oil , S&P. Serve with sliced Krab Sticks over baby arugula.

An added bonus was the oyster mushrooms with a brown butter sauce, mmmm.

Bullet with Bunny Ears?

It's been a long weekend and the last thing I needed to hear was there was a shootout in front of my house. Confirmed by this casing found curbside my castle. Ah, northside. Now it's a funny piece of art. Happy Easter.

Getting Better

Heading up to Philly this morning, I really am starting to wonder about my sanity. Looking forward to seeing my girls. Here's the reconciliation piece that made it all better. BAW, you are getting some fun & funky jewelry inspired by Istanbul.